Illustration by Farzeen Jabbar
When you think of visually aware musicians, the likes Madonna, David Bowie, Grace Jones and Prince come to mind. Although the success of their lengthy careers is more likely to be because of their ever changing musical styles, their evolving image played a huge part in their rise to success, defining eras along the way. Today, Lady GaGa is one of the only pop stars who puts as much thought and time into her image. Thing is, what she gets applauded for, Patrick Wolf wore six months earlier and was mostly ridiculed.
South London, 1983, and Patrick Apps was born into a creative family. An awkward childhood, where he sued his All-boys school for failing to deal with persistent bullying due to him being ‘too feminine’. He spent his evenings amongst drag queens in Soho clubs and joined the art collective Minty. Living in these two completely different worlds helped the confused and lost boy determined to prove his doubters. Using the winnings from the court case he bought a piano and left home, aged sixteen with no qualifications but a dream of pop stardom. Patrick Wolf was born. Each album has seen a new Patrick Wolf, not just musically but also in looks and personality.
Aged twenty he finally got what he had been battling for, a record deal. Debut album, Lycanthropy was a showcase record covering every side of the singer as well as songs that he had written in his early teens. The record struggled to grab attention but he wasn’t going to give up. During this period he sported bleach blonde hair (a look he would go back to later in his career) and became some sort of anti-fashion hero as he dressed in charity shop attire.
After a two-year struggle things began to look-up as his second album, Wind In The Wires grabbed attention from the right places. After the previous couple of years, Patrick had become a lot darker – visually at least. Gone was the blonde mop; a lengthier black cut arrived with a mysterious British look took place. The singer hid behind his fringe shyly and the flamboyance of his youth had gone.
Illustration by Faye West
2007 arrived with the biggest chance for Patrick to become the pop star he dreamt of becoming. After building up a loyal fan-base and with two critically acclaimed records under his belt, he signed away his life to major label Universal. Although they gave him a big budget to record his most mainstream-viable material on The Magic Position he was forced into things he didn’t want to do and lost his freedom. Arriving with this upbeat record came dyed red hair, a lot of glitter and clothes designed by up-and-coming London designers riding the waves of the ‘new rave’ movement. The colourful character become victim of the paparrazi whilst falling out of nightclubs with the likes of Peaches Geldof and new friend Agyness Deyn, who he also modelled with on the Burberry campaign along with fellow musicians including Edward Larrikin. A turbulent and chaotic couple of years followed which almost broke him but he came out of it and learnt a lot.
There were dark sides in this period where he dabbled with drugs and his sexuality, which gave him both a journey to be told in his fourth album, The Bachelor, and a new image. The peroxide hair was back but this time, showing power rather than vulnerability, partnered with bondage attire that included lots of leather. The lost boy had grown into a man aiming to shock with his punk attitude, but in today’s world he didn’t shock, he was just ignored. During his gigs for this album he had costume changes that included huge shoulder pads, hedgehog-esq spikes, high-heels and the Madonna inspired headset. Pretty soon afterwards, the fashion world were obsessing over Lady GaGa who took the same look but with a bigger budget. This period in Patrick’s life and career concluded in a spectacular show that took place at the London Palladium in November 2009 where he put every effort into making this memorable.
Illustration by Krister Selin
That was the last ‘proper’ gig he played until he performed at West London’s Bush Hall this month which was a much more intimate affair. As he had been hidden away recording the follow-up to last years The Bachelor, it was unclear which of Patrick’s personalities would show up and what direction his music would take..
The sold out crowd that included everybody from sixteen year old girls to sixty year old men waited in anticipation to see what was in-store next. As his band arrived on-stage, suited and booted, Patrick followed looking equally smart with a new short dark hair-cut and a suit jacket, under which was a polka-dot jumpsuit…obviously. Although there was no new material, this set included tracks from all four albums. He played with a smile on his face and spoke with honesty in between songs apologising for his behaviour in The Magic Position period. He seemed generally embarrassed about his past and ‘selling his soul’ when modelling for Burberry, or Primark as he claimed as it was just to pay his rent.
Illustration by Meera Lee
Is this Patrick Wolf growing up? He has almost gone a full circle back to the Lycanthropy days but with nothing to prove and nothing to hide. Or is he still evolving into Patrick Wolf 5.0?
Tags:
Farzeen Jabbar, fashion, Faye West, Krister Selin, Lady Gaga, Live Review, Magic Position, Meera Lee, music, Patrick Wolf
